Long-running Canadian thrashers ANNIHILATOR have been forced to cancel their previously announced European tour, which was slated to kick off in July. In a posting on the band’s official forum, mainman Jeff Waters wrote, «We were, of course, really looking forward to doing this tour but will unfortunately have to push it back to late 2006. We had planned on finishing up our new CD by tour time. However, the recording is taking longer than anticipated and some of the people involved in the recording/mixing are not avaliable after the tour. We sincerely apologize to the fans and promoters but will see you all in the fall!»

ANNIHILATOR‘s eleventh studio album, «Schizo Deluxe», was released in North America last November via Locomotive Music. The band recently issued a retrospective double-disc DVD set, entitled «Ten Years in Hell», via SPV. The set contains seven classic, official ANNIHILATOR music videos, offstage band footage and bonus underground, fan-shot, live performances and a special interview with Waters as he recounts his memories of the band’s «first ten years in Hell.» Also included are special appearances by original co-lyricist John Bates, «Neverland» frontman Coburn Pharr, «Criteria» bassist Russell Bergquist, and «Set the World on Fire»‘s Mike Mangini and Neil Goldberg.

Swedish melodic death metallers DARK TRANQUILLITY have posted the following message on their official web site:

«No updates for a while, but rest assured that we haven’t been resting on our laurels. We’re insanely busy with the songwriting for the next album, and it’s now decided that the recordings will start in October. More details about studios (yes, that’s in plural), working partners and so forth will follow as soon as everything is 100% confirmed.

«As for the music itself, the material we’re working on covers the whole gamut from laid back acoustic sections to furious blastbeats, so you can all look forward to a diverse and challenging offering. Most songs are still in the embryonic stages, so it’ll be interesting to see how things develop.

«Some media goodness to make the wait for the next magnum opus easier: A 15-minute video clip of our gig at the Fury Fest in France (June 25, 2005) has been uploaded to our MySpace page. As usual with these homemade recordings, the quality itsn’t stellar, but it gives a good enough representation of the show. Also, we found an old version of ‘Away, Delight, Away’ from an 8-track promo recording we did in our rehearsal studio back in the spring of 1994. This is an early incarnation of the song that differs slightly from the version that ended up on the ‘Of Chaos and Eternal Night’ MCD. The promo itself also contained ‘Punish my Heaven’ and ‘The Gallery’, and was sent out to a select few record labels and tape trading contacts.»

DARK TRANQUILLITY recently completed a North American tour with OPETH, THE DEVIN TOWNSEND BAND and DEVILDRIVER in support of «Character», their highly acclaimed latest album that brought these originators of the famed Gothenburg scene back to the forefront of the genre. «Character», recorded once again at Studio Fredman (IN FLAMES, ARCH ENEMY), has also been praised as their most groundbreaking yet as it retains all of the band’s classic elements and thought-provoking lyrical content while blending the perfect amount of unrelenting aggression and melody.

According to the World Entertainment News Network, SLAYER has sparked controversy with a new song about 9/11 from the terrorists’ viewpoint.

The California foursome were fed up with other bands’ American perspective of the attacks on New York and Washington D.C. in 2001, so they wrote their own unique version.

Guitarist/songwriter Jeff Hanneman has angered 9/11 victims’ families with the extremist angled track «Jihad», which will feature on their new album.

Guitarist Kerry King says, «In America every band under the sun has written their 9/11 song. And that’s why I didn’t want to have any part of it, but this is really cool. It kind of has an ‘Angel of Death’ feel because it doesn’t condemn anyone or say that anyone’s right or wrong.»

A live video of METALLICA members James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo performing the track «Battery» with SLAYER drummer Dave Lombardo at the Download festival in England on June 6, 2004 has been posted online at YouTube.com. More footage ? including interview clips with some of the other bands performing at the Download 2004 festival (such as DAMAGEPLAN, HATEBREED and ILL NINO) ? can be found here.

METALLICA‘s regular drummer, Lars Ulrich, was taken to hospital with an undisclosed illness just hours before METALLICA were due to headline the festival. Rather than pull the show and risk a revolt from fans, METALLICA called upon SLAYER and SLIPKNOT drummers, Lombardo and Joey Jordison (respectively), alongside Ulrich‘s long-standing drum tech Flemming Larsen, to rescue the gig. Jordison played in his SLIPKNOT mask. Watch a clip of Joey Jordison performing «Enter Sandman» with METALLICA at this location. Video of Jordison‘s rendition of «For Whom the Bell Tolls» with METALLICA can be viewed here.

Guitar One magazine (cover, web site) recently conducted an interview with BLACK SABBATH guitarist Tony Iommi to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the band’s «Paranoid» LP, which is regarded by many as the first real heavy metal album. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

Guitar One: Do you recall a specific early moment when the SABBATH sound began to take shape?

Iommi: «I had a band with Bill Ward called MYTHOLOGY, which was into a sort of bluesy, jazzy thing. But it went into a totally different, heavier side as well. I recall one time at rehearsal when I played this riff that made the hair on my arm stand up. It was such a different vibe, I knew that was it. That riff led to ‘Wicked World’; ‘Black Sabbath’ came soon after. ‘Wicked World’ still had a very jazzy feel, as you know. But ‘Black Sabbath’ took a total turn, and it grabbed us all. That started me writing in that darker vein.»

Guitar One: Did you make that change, at least in part, for commercial reasons? Did you see a possible opportunity?

Iommi: No, never. We never thought about commercialism. It was just that the style grabbed us. We tested that sound out at a blues club, of all places, and it was interesting to see the shock on people’s faces in the middle of our blues set. But they seemed turned on by it, or so we gathered. Anyway, we knew we liked it.»

Guitar One: When did the material for «Paranoid» first start to appear?

Iommi: «When we were on tour for a bit after the first record. We had a six-week stint at a club in Zurich, where we’d start at 3:00 p.m. and play seven 45-minute sets ? for six weeks! Well, we didn’t have enough songs, so we’d keep playing the same things, which got really boring, as you can imagine. So we used that time to start jamming and making up things, especially in the off hours, when there only a few people in the club. That’s when ‘War Pigs’ came about. At the end of the six-week period, we had two or three real songs to start the new album with.»

Guitar One: So then you went in to record «Paranoid».

Iommi: «Right. The recording of ‘Paranoid’ went very quickly. We went in, and five days later it was finished. Most of my ideas came from gigs ? I’d throw them in, a little riff here or there. It was tricky, though, because you had to remember it in those days; there were no simple recording devices. A lot of the ideas were structured at shows, and when it came time to do an album, we’d have to recall them and put them together.»

Guitar One: There must have been a lot of pressure on you to come up with material.

Iommi: «They looked to me to come up with the music. If I didn’t come up with something, we didn’t do anything. You couldn’t start with the drum thing, that didn’t work for us. The guitar was the most tuneful element in the band, so everything stemmed from it.»

Guitar One: It’s been written that you worked well on the spot.

Iommi: «I tended to come up with stuff on the spot all the time. I wasn’t the type to go home and think about it and work on something ? I don’t know why I couldn’t do that. I’d go in with nothing, but I took it upon myself to not let anyone else down. I couldn’t tell them, ‘I can’t think of anything, guys, sorry.’ I had to come up with something.»

Guitar One: Did you ever hit a wall and come up empty?

Iommi: «It wasn’t until the later years, while we were recording ‘Sabbath Bloody Sabbath’, that I hit a blank, but that was five records in. I really did hit a wall, too. I couldn’t think of anything. I was gutted. The band had shipped everything ? all our gear ? to L.A., where we’d rented a house for six months. But I was dry, so we basically turned right back around and went home.»

Guitar One: Then what happened?

Iommi: «We came back together a bit later and went to Clearwell Castle in Wales. We set up in the dungeon and made sure the mood was right for us. Not long after we got there, I wrote the riff for ‘Sabbath Bloody Sabbath’, and we went from there. That song set the album up nicely.»

Guitar One‘s entire interview with Tony Iommi appears in the magazine’s July 2006 issue, available on the newsstands now.